A starting place for birding information for British Columbia, Canada. This web site features a birders discussion forum, links to birding newsgroups, articles and book reviews, checklists, regional hotspots, photo gallery, weather reports, and visiting birder information.

hiwe are planning a trip to Vancouver Island first week of April. We are staying 1 night in Sidney with an option of visiting Butchart Gardens nearby for a few hours. So wondering if it was worth it to visit if one of us is interested in flowers and the other only interested taking pictures of birds. Are there enough birds in the gardens to make it worthwhile? thanks for your input.

ps I am aware of ebird which I will be checking during our Vancouver Island visit.

I've never found much for birding at Buchart Gardens. You might see some ducks overlooking the inlet but it's not a very good view. Maybe there's just too many people going around for birds to feel comfortable hanging out.

Maybe someone else has had better birding luck there would like to provide input.

The gardens themselves are impressive and I would expect birds and butterflies to be there however because it can be filled with people, the birds will probably be on the fringes high in the canopy. The Butchart Gardens is a located in the middle of a Douglas Fir Forest so I expect you would mainly find forest species around here.

Now, there are some good birding spots close by to Butchart Gardens that may offer a wider variety of species.